Today (May 1, 2010) is the 56^th birthday of singer & songwriter Ray Parker Jr. Parker is best-known for the song "Ghostbusters" from the 1984 smash hit movie. That song was as big of a hit as the movie reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August of that year staying there for three weeks. Though it is catchy and helped develop the tagline, "Who you gonna call?" I am not a big fan of the song. In fact, it ranks on my Worst #1 Songs of the 80s list. It also ranks on my Top 80s Songs with One-Word Titles and Top Songs from 80s Movies lists. If you are unfamiliar with those lists or want to see the "Ghostbusters" video, visit one of those links above. Iinstead of the most obvious choice or the controversy surrounding it, I am going to focus this issue on another song by Parker.

My favorite songs by Ray Parker Jr. are 1983's "I Still Can't Get Over Loving You" from the album Woman Out of Control and 1982's "The Other Woman." The latter was from his debut solo album on the same name and would reach #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Parker made two videos for that song. The first was Halloween-themed and centered around a haunted castle with dancing corpses and vampires. This week's Flashback Video is "The Other Woman" by Ray Parker Jr...

It is reported that MTV refused to play that version of the video due to its depiction of an interracial relationship. Can you believe that (just 28 years ago)? So a second version was made which featured Parker performing the song against an outer space background with backup singers. This boring version is probably more remembered if you even remember one at all, so here is that version of "The Other Woman" by Ray Parker Jr...

Early in his career, Parker worked with Barry White and also wrote songs and did session work for The Carpenters, Rufus & Chaka Khan, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Deniece Williams, The Temptations, The Spinners, Boz Scaggs, David Foster, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Herbie Hancock and Diana Ross among others. He also wrote and produced the 1984 hit song by New Edition "Mr. Telephone Man."

Ray Parker Jr. would not have another hit song after 1984's "Ghostbusters" but his last album was released as recently as 2006. He married his wife in 1994 and is raising four sons. If you want to find out more, you can visit his official website. Though he is likely best known for his one big hit, Ray Parker Jr's contributions to the 80s were obviously much more.

That'll finish up another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. If you want to see the past issues of Flashback Videos, just type that into the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column and it should give you a list of all of them. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use that Google Search Box to find any past issues or topics you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. You can also follow Old School on Twitter by clicking on the FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER LOGO also in the upper right hand column. This will take you the page and you can just click on the box that says "Follow". Even though the blog only updates a couple times a week, I try to send out daily 80s tweets. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.